A Review of the 2nd book in the All Souls Trilogy: “Shadow of Night”

Shadow of Night is the second book in Deborah Harkness’s All Souls Trilogy. It follows the romantic journey of a witch, Diana, and a vampire, Matthew. Along the way, their forbidden love is thwarted from all paranormal sides; the witches are unhappy that Diana is with a vampire; the vampires are unhappy that the strong dark and brooding Matthew is with a witch; and the demons are just generally manic and confused.

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The start of this book was slow, I have to admit. Although, that might have had something to do with the cliff-hanger-ending of Harkness’s first book, A Discovery of Witches. Diana and Matthew are about to embark on a rather life altering journey. They intend to travel back in time to London, 1590. And this is where Harkness’s academic background shines. Her descriptions of the time period are beautiful and they are also very real. I really enjoy books when they can truly captivate the real essence of a time and/or place.

This book is also where Diana’s character truly transforms. In the first book, I felt that she was very much like a Juliet/Desdemona character: naive, fragile, submissive. Here, in Shadow of Night, Diana embarks on a journey not only to discover her powers as a witch, but to also discover herself. She starts to fight back against some of Matthew’s possessive ways, and in the end, the two meet half way.

When Diana and Matthew are finally ready to return they both realise that they have stayed too long. They are not sure what will happen when they return and whether they have altered history. Again, another cliff-hanger, which has been killing me since I finished the book. But fear not! Harkness’s new book, The Book of Life, comes out July 15, 2014. Thank goodness!

If you want to get started on Harkness’s third book, you can find thefirst chapter of The Book of Life. Although, if you’re anything like me. I am not reading the first chapter for fear of going insane whilst I wait for July! As always, share the reading love.